2021年世界Council of Optometry (WCO) passed a resolution thatpublicly declares support for myopia management as standard of care. This was defined as:
- Mitigation:attempting to prevent or delay onset of myopia by providing advice on visual environment and watching for pre-myopia
- Measurement:providing regular comprehensive vision and eye health examinations for myopic children including measuring refraction and axial length where possible
- Management:addressing patient’s needs today to correct and control myopia with evidence-based interventions, for improved quality of life and better eye health today and into the future.
While myopia management involves interdisciplinary care and awareness, myopia management starts with optometry, hence it is a vital and necessary step for the WCO to have made this resolution. The resolution means that optometrists each should have an imperative to discuss myopia risk factors and the visual environment, identify children at risk of myopia, undertake regular eye examinations (advised every 6 months by theInternational Myopia Institute Clinical Management Guidelines) and offer myopia correction and control.
To bring this resolution to life,WCO has partnered with CooperVisionto raise awareness of myopia and the need to use the evidence to improve treatment and outcomes. This partnership has taken shape as a variety of educational resources for optometrists and supportive resources for discussions with parents, with landmark releases in September 2021, January 2022 and an upcoming virtual event on the 12th of February 2022. This article will step you through these resources.
WCO Myopia Website Resource
In September 2021 theWCO, with the support of CooperVision, launched an online resourceproviding a central location for multilingual assets and approaches to support the global optometric community to apply the standard of care. This website is organized around the three principles of the standard of care – mitigation, measurement and management – with additional resources on practical approaches. More resources will continue to be added throughout 2022.
1. Myopia Article: A Practical Guide to Managing Children with Myopia
Available in seven languages,A Practical Guide to Managing Children with Myopiais a Q&A format providing hands-on advice from leading myopia managing optometrists from around the world. Released in January 2022, the four authors are Dr. Carmen Abesamis-Dichoso, Philippines; Dr. Rufina Chan, Hong Kong; Dr. Kate Gifford, Australia and Dr. Fuensanta Vera-Diaz, United States. Each expert is asked 3-4 questions on how they put myopia management into practice, from managing pre-myopia to choosing a strategy to follow-up examinations and managing outcomes. This is essential reading for optometrists serious about meeting this challenge of applying myopia management as standard of care in their practices.
Find the article in your preferred language via theStandard of Caretab at the top of the website. A sample of the article in English is shown below.
A sample of the World Council of Optometry's new resourceA Practical Guide to Managing Children with Myopia,launched in January 2022.
2. Myopia Moments
These are one page, intensely useful PDF references for optometrists, to support clinical practice. Available in eight language versions, for each of the three principles of myopia management the WCO have provided two Myopia Moments. These are:
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- Mitigation:Lifestyle related adviceandChildren at risk
- Measurement:What to measureandPatient follow up
- Management:How to choose an interventionandClinical Interventions.
A sample of three of these six Myopia Moments is shown below. Download them from each of the Mitigation, Measurement and Management tabs on the WCO myopia website - the links are provided in the bullet points above or accessed by clicking the images below.
3. Myopia Discussion Forum
A discussion forum for conversations with eye care professionals worldwide, established on the website -click hereto see and contribute to the forum.
4. Global Virtual Event: 12th February 2022
This free online event will be hosted on 12thfi 2022年2月,汇集专家eld of myopia management to describe how they bring the standard of care into practice. To check out the program and speakers and to register,click hereor click the image below.
Access these WCO resources to help you manage myopia
- Read the one pageWCO Resolution: The Standard of Care For Myopia Management by Optometristsvia this link, available in eight languages.
- Access theWCO Myopia Website Resourceto read the articleA Practical Guide to Managing Children with Myopiaand download the sixMyopia Moments, both available in eight language versions.
- Register today for thePutting It Into Practice: Myopia Management Virtual Event on 12 February 2022.
About the World Council of Optometry
TheWorld Council of Optometry (WCO)is an international membership-based non-profile organization for individual optometrists, industry professionals and optometric organizations that envisions a world where optometry makes high quality eye health and vision care accessible to all people. Its mission is to facilitate the development of optometry around the world and support optometrists in promoting eye health and vision care as a human right through advocacy, education, policy development and humanitarian outreach. Learn more via theirwebsite,Facebook,LinkedIn,TwitterandInstagram.
About Kate
Dr Kate Giffordis a clinical optometrist, researcher, peer educator and professional leader from Brisbane, Australia, and a co-founder of Myopia Profile.
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